Chip stack with electrically insulating walls

ABSTRACT

A method of forming a chip stack is provided and includes arraying solder pads along a plane of a major surface of a substrate forming walls of electrically insulating material between adjacent ones of the solder pads.

This application is a Continuation application of U.S. Non-Provisionalapplication Ser. No. 13/745,966, which was filed Jan. 21, 2013. Theentire contents of U.S. application Ser. No. 13/745,966 are incorporatedherein by reference.

BACKGROUND

The present invention relates to chip stacks, and more specifically, to3D chip stacks with electrically insulating walls between microbumps.

In 3D chip stacks, chips such as integrated circuits are layered on topof one another in a three-dimensional stack with electricalinterconnects between layers. This configuration has many benefits, suchas providing a designer with the ability to place an increased number ofchips in a given two-dimensional area with an increased amount ofelectrical communications between them. Since there is no thermalexpansion mismatch between silicon chips, finer pitch (</=100 microns)electrical interconnects, such as microbumps with a density of tenthousand or more connections per square centimeter, can be used.However, such 3D chip stacks are more difficult to adequately cool thena planar array of individual chips.

Recently, it has been seen that the thermal resistance of a microbumpjoining layer between chips in a 3D chip stack can limit allowable powerdistributions and stack heights. Moreover, in conventional flip-chipbonding, a size of a microbump area is limited to a given percentage ofa total size of a fully populated array. This design rule is used toprevent a given microbump from “bridging” between adjacent pads. Thus,in an effort to prevent bridging, it is often necessary to limit a sizeof a microbumps area in a microbump array.

For example, in a conventional flip-chip bonding process a pick andplace tool may be used to place the chip face down on a substrate wherethe chip contains solder balls on about 200 micron pitch, for example,controlled collapse chip connections (C4s), and the substrate containsmatching pads, and the combination is then passed through a reflowfurnace to join the chip to the substrate by melting the solder. Thesurface tension of the solder in the molten state serves to “self-align”the chip to the substrate, assuming that the solder balls are placed onthe appropriate pads. To avoid having solder “bridging” between adjacentpads, or a C4 solder ball contact multiple pads on the substrate, thesolder ball diameter usually does not exceed half of the pitch betweensolder pads. For a square array, this means that the solder area islimited to about 20% of the total joint area.

These limitations often lead to limits in the allowable powerdistributions and stack heights in 3D chip stacks due to the thermalresistance of the microbump joining layer(s).

SUMMARY

According to one embodiment of the present invention, a chip stack isprovided and includes two or more chips, a solder joint operablydisposed between adjacent ones of the two or more chips, the solderjoint occupying about 30% or more of an area of the chip stack andinsulating walls disposed on at least one of the two or more chips toseparate the solder joint from an adjacent solder joint.

According to another embodiment, a chip stack element is provided. Thechip stack element includes a substrate having two major surfaces,solder pads arrayed along a plane of one of the major surfaces and wallsformed of electrically insulating material disposed between adjacentones of the solder pads.

According to another embodiment, a system for forming chip stacks isprovided and includes a chip stack element including a substrate havingtwo major surfaces, solder pads arrayed along a plane of one of themajor surfaces and walls formed of electrically insulating materialdisposed between adjacent ones of the solder pads and an adjacent chipstack element. The adjacent chip stack element includes a substratehaving two major surfaces and microbumps arrayed along a plane of one ofthe major surfaces and is disposable relative to the chip stack elementsuch that solder joint material of the microbumps aligns with the solderpads of the chip stack element.

According to another embodiment, a method of forming a chip stack isprovided and includes arraying solder pads along a plane of a majorsurface of a substrate and forming walls of electrically insulatingmaterial between adjacent ones of the solder pads.

According to yet another embodiment, a method of forming a chip stack isprovided and includes forming a chip stack element to include asubstrate having two major surfaces, solder pads arrayed along a planeof one of the major surfaces and walls formed of electrically insulatingmaterial disposed between adjacent ones of the solder pads, forming anadjacent chip stack element to include a substrate having two majorsurfaces, pads of a conductive seed layer arrayed along a plane of oneof the major surfaces, metallic posts disposed on top surfaces of theconductive seed layer pads and underbump metallurgy and solder jointmaterial disposed on the metallic posts and disposing the adjacent chipstack element relative to the chip stack element such that the solderjoint material aligns with the solder pads of the chip stack element.

Additional features and advantages are realized through the techniquesof the present invention. Other embodiments and aspects of the inventionare described in detail herein and are considered a part of the claimedinvention. For a better understanding of the invention with theadvantages and the features, refer to the description and to thedrawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

The subject matter which is regarded as the invention is particularlypointed out and distinctly claimed in the claims at the conclusion ofthe specification. The forgoing and other features, and advantages ofthe invention are apparent from the following detailed description takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic flow diagram illustrating a method of forming achip stack element in accordance with embodiments;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the chip stack element formed by the method ofFIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a schematic flow diagram illustrating an alternate method offorming a chip stack element in accordance with embodiments; and

FIG. 4 is schematic a flow diagram illustrating a method of forming achip stack in accordance with further embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

It is desirable to be able to significantly increase a fraction ofsolder area present between chips in a chip stack to reduce verticalthermal resistances between chips while also avoiding solder bridgingbetween microbumps.

The description provided below relates to a 3D chip stack in whichinsulating guiding structures (i.e., “walls”) are formed on one or bothof the major chip surfaces. The walls will substantially reduce orprevent misalignment of solder joint material and block solder bridgingbetween adjacent pads. This will lead to an ability to increasemicrobump areas, which will significantly reduce the vertical thermalresistances in the chip stack.

With reference to FIG. 1, a method of forming a chip stack is provided.As shown in FIG. 1, the method initially includes arraying solder pads10 along a plane of one of two major surfaces (i.e., a “top” surface”)11 of a substrate 12. The substrate 12 may be formed of silicon andincludes active electronic devices along one major surface, thru siliconvias to provide electrical connections between the two major surfaces ofthe chip, multiple levels of wiring to interconnect the activeelectronic devices on the chip active face and capture pads orredistribution wiring on the inactive major face of the chip forconnection to the thru silicon vias.

In FIG. 1, interconnect pad 101 is disposed in a top level of multiplewiring levels to which a microbump will be interconnected and firstinsulator 102 surrounds the conductive interconnect pad 101. The solderpad arraying process may be achieved by, for example, depositing one ormore second insulator layers 104 and forming an opening in the secondinsulator layer 104 to expose wiring of the interconnect pad 101. Theopening in second insulator layer 104 may be tapered to improve metalcoverage of a conductive seed layer over the edge of the openings. Aconductive pad 103 is formed by electroplating of ball limitingmetallurgy (for, e.g., copper, nickel, and gold layers) pads in openingsof a photoresist layer which expose a blanket conductive seed layer,which is followed by stripping the photoresist and etching the exposedblanket seed layer processes. The final conductive pad 103 incorporatesthe conductive seed layer along with the electroplated ball limitingmetallurgy layers.

Thus, the solder pads 10 may have a conductive (e.g., copper, nickel andgold layers) pad 103 and one or more second insulator layers 104. Theconductive pad 103 is generally planar but has a depression in a centralportion thereof at which the conductive pad 103 contacts theinterconnect pad 101.

The case described above is for an “active” microbump connection wherean electrical connection is made. In some cases, the opening in secondinsulator layer 104 is omitted and a “dummy” microbump connection ismade which does not provide an electrical connection, but does provide amechanical connection and reduces the thermal resistance between chiplayers.

Once the arraying of the solder pads 10 is completed, walls 20 areformed of electrically insulating material, such as polymer material(e.g., polyimide), between adjacent ones of the solder pads 10. Forexample, a photoimageable polyimide (PSPI) layer could be use tofabricate the walls 20. The walls 20 surround each of the solder pads 10along a top surface of the second insulator 104 and may extendvertically upwardly from the top surface of the second insulator 104. Inaccordance with embodiments, the walls 20 may be respectively associatedwith each of the solder pads 10 and may be separate from one another orcontinuous. In the latter case, the continuous walls 20 may be formed asa hexagonal array such that each solder pad 10 is surrounded by asix-sided continuous wall 20 (see FIG. 2).

As shown in FIG. 1, the walls 20 may be separated from the conductivepads 103 of the solder pads 10 due to alignment or processing tolerancesand to provide space for any “squeeze out” of solder, as will bedescribed below. In accordance with embodiments, the walls 20 may bedisposed slightly less than halfway between the corresponding solder pad10 and an adjacent solder pad 10. Thus, the walls 20 of the adjacentsolder pad 10 will have ample space and the walls 20 between adjacentsolder pads are effectively merged into a single wall 20 of the desiredfinal width (see FIG. 2).

With the walls 20 formed as described above to surround the solder pads10, a top surface of a chip stack element 30 is formed. Next, a bottommating surface of adjacent chip stack element 50 is described, whichcarries a microbump and solder material that attaches to the conductivepad 103 on the top surface of the chip stack element 30. A microbumpjoin is formed by reflowing solder joint material 56 (to be describedbelow), which is formed as part of the bottom surface of the adjacentchip stack element 50, to the solder pads 10 on the top surface of chipstack element 30 as solder joints 40. The bottom surface of the adjacentchip stack element 50 includes a substrate 51 having a top surface 52(which is invertible with respect to the top surface 11, as shown inFIG. 1), microbumps 53 arrayed along a plane of one of two majorsurfaces (i.e., the “top surface) 52, which includes conductive seedlayer 58, metallic posts 54, underbump metallurgy 533, solder jointmaterial 56, and second insulator layer(s) 544.

The microbumps 53 may be formed by a somewhat similar method asdescribed above with respect to the solder pads 10. If the material ofthe metallic posts 54 and the capture pad or redistribution wiring 531(to be described below) are dissimilar and can react, the blanketconductive seed layer 58 can incorporate a barrier layer. Note that asimilar barrier layer can be incorporated in the conductive seed layerused in fabrication of the conductive pad 103, if required. After theblanket conductive seed layer 58 is deposited, conductive metallic post54, underbump metallurgy 533 and solder joint material 56 may be formedby electroplating through openings in a photo patterned layer such aspin coated resist or dry film resist, which is followed by strippingthe resist and etching the conductive seed layer 58 to isolate themicrobumps. Similar to the description above, the microbumps 53 mayinclude the seed layer 58, the conductive metallic post 54 (e.g.,copper), underbump metallurgy 533 (e.g. nickel), solder joint material56, and second insulator layer(s) 544.

As described above for substrate 12, substrate 51 may be formed ofsilicon and may include active electronic devices along one majorsurface, thru silicon vias to provide electrical connections between thetwo major surfaces of the chip, multiple levels of wiring tointerconnect the active electronic devices on the chip active face, andcapture pads or redistribution wiring on the inactive major face of thechip for connection to the thru silicon vias.

In FIG. 1, the capture pad or redistribution wiring 531 is disposed onthe inactive major surface of the chip on which a microbump will beformed and the first insulator 532 represents a first insulator, whichsurrounds the conductive pads. The seed layer 58 is generally planar buthas a depression in a central portion thereof at which the seed layer 58contacts the thru silicon via capture pad or redistribution wiring 531.The second insulator layer or layers 544 may be disposed around thedepression of the seed layer 58 and between the planar portions of theseed layer 58 and the first insulator 532. The opening in the secondinsulator layer 544 may be tapered to improve metal coverage of theconductive seed layer 58 over the edge of the openings.

The case described above is for an “active” microbump connection wherean electrical connection is made. In some cases, the opening in secondinsulator layer 544 is omitted and a “dummy” microbump connection ismade, which does not provide an electrical connection, but does providea mechanical connection and reduces the thermal resistance between chiplayers. Note that in the above descriptions, the location of theconductive pad 103 on the active side of the chip and the location ofthe microbump 53 on the inactive side of the adjacent chip is thepreferred configuration, but should not be considered limiting asalternate configurations are possible.

To join the top surface of adjacent chip stack element 30 to the bottomsurface of the adjacent chip stack element 50, the adjacent chip stackelement 50 is oriented as shown in FIG. 1 and disposed such that thesolder joint material 56 of one of the microbumps 53 is proximate to theconductive pad 103 of a corresponding one of the solder pads 10. By wayof, for example, pancake or intermetallic compound bonding (IMC), thesolder joint material 56 is then heated or otherwise caused to reflowfrom the underbump metallurgy 533 to the conductive pad 103 of thecorresponding one of the solder pads 10 whereby the walls 20 serve toinsure that bridging of solder joint material 56 does not occur betweenadjacent solder pads 10 and underbump metallurgy 533. This could bedone, for example, with a high precision flip-chip bonder, whichprovides a compressive force between the chip stack elements during thejoining process.

A result of this processing can be seen in FIG. 2 in which the solderjoints 40 are illustrated as being formed on the conductive pads 103 ofthe solder pads 10. As shown in FIG. 2, each pair of the solder pads 10and the solder joints 40 are surrounded by the corresponding walls 20 inthe exemplary hexagonal configuration.

The space defined between the walls 20 and the solder joints 40, whichis visible in FIGS. 1 and 2 may be either be empty (as shown) or atleast partially filled with solder joint material 56 that is preventedfrom bridging with another adjacent solder pad 10 or adjacent microbump53 by a local portion of the walls 20.

In an embodiment of a six-sided continuous wall 20, the hexagonal pitchof adjacent conductive pads 103 and solder joints 40 may beapproximately 50 μm with spacing between complementary sides ofapproximately 10 μm. In such cases, the width of the continuous walls 20between complementary portions of adjacent conductive pads 103 andsolder joints 40 may be approximately 4 μm thick such that theseparation between the walls 20 and the conductive pads 103/solderjoints 40 is approximately 3 μm thick. With such a configuration, thesolder joints 40 occupy about 64% of the total area.

In the embodiment described above, a conventional underfill orpre-applied underfill (PAUF) can be used to encapsulate the resultingchip stack. The relative thickness of the copper post and solder layercan be varied to result in some solder remaining after bonding if arework option is needed. With the above described intermetallic compoundbonding or pancake bonding, rework may be difficult. The structuredescribed is an exemplary configuration and should not be consideredlimiting.

With reference to FIG. 3, an alternate embodiment is shown where thebottom surface of adjacent chip stack element 50 may further includewalls 60. The walls 60 are similar to the walls 20 in that they may beformed of electrically insulating material, such as polymer material(e.g., polyimide), between adjacent ones of the seed layer 58, metallicposts 54, and underbump metallurgy 533. The walls 60 surround each ofthe seed layers 58, metallic posts 54, and underbump metallurgy 533along the plane of the top surface 52 of the substrate 51 and may extendvertically upwardly from the second insulator 544. In accordance withembodiments, the walls 60 may be respectively associated with each ofthe microbumps 53 and separate from one another or continuous. In thelatter case, the continuous walls 60 may be formed as a hexagonal arraysuch that each microbump 53 is surrounded by a six-sided continuous wall60.

As shown in FIG. 3, the metallic posts 54 and underbump metallurgy 533may be wider than portions of the walls 60 and shorter than the walls 60as measured from the top surface 52. Thus, the walls 60 and the metallicposts 54 and underbump metallurgy 533 delimit a recess 601 in which thesolder joint material 56 may be contained. The structure shown in themiddle image of FIG. 3 may be formed by means similar to that describedabove for FIG. 1 except that no solder joining layer is plated and thepolyimide layer is thicker and fills between the underbump metallurgy533 and metallic posts 54. The solder joining material may be added tothe structure shown in FIG. 3 by using injection molded solder. Thisprocess would fill the cavity space 601 above the underbump metallurgy533 and between the insulating walls 60 with liquid solder, which wouldthen “ball-up” and extend above the insulating walls 60 aftersolidification as shown in FIG. 3.

In the structure described above, the underbump metallurgy 533 will needto be modified to not only contain a nickel layer, but also a gold layerto prevent oxidization of the nickel before the solder is injectionmolded. The structure described above and illustrated in FIG. 3 could bejoined to the top surface of chip stack element 30 which does notcontain polymer walls 20 as is illustrated in the left side of FIG. 1.In this second embodiment, a thin pre-applied underfill layer could beapplied to either chip before bonding and as described above and thethickness of the solder layer can be varied as desired. The dimensionsdescribed above for the previous embodiment could again be used for theconductive post 54 but the area occupied by the solder joining material56 would be somewhat less since the polymer walls 60 overlap themetallic posts 54 and underbump metallurgy 533 to form the recess 601.

In a third embodiment, a chip stack can be formed where polymer wallsare present on both mating surfaces. With reference to FIG. 4, thebottom surface of adjacent chip stack element 50 of FIG. 3 may be joinedto the conductive pad 103 of the corresponding one of the solder pads10. As shown in FIG. 4, the walls 60 of the bottom surface of adjacentchip stack element 50 may be narrower than the walls 20 of the uppersurface of chip stack element 30. In this way, when the bottom surfaceof adjacent chip stack element 50 is positioned, the walls 20 of theupper surface of chip stack element 30 and the walls 60 of the bottomsurface of adjacent chip stack element 50 may be used to guide thesolder joint material 56 reflow and to prevent bridging between adjacentsolder pads 10. Note that in this embodiment, the polymer walls 60surrounding each microbump 53 on the bottom surface of adjacent chipstack element 50 would need to be modified to contain channels intowhich the polymer walls 20 of the upper surface of chip stack element 30could pass when they are joined.

In accordance with embodiments, a fraction of an area occupied by thesolder pads 10 and microbumps 53, which are joined to form solder joints40 in a chip stack, as described above, is increased relative to theconventional flip-chip packages or chip stacks. Thus, for a fullypopulated array, the solder pads 10 and microbumps 53 and correspondingsolder joints 40 may have more than 25-30% connection areas, more than50% connection areas or, more particularly, 50-60% connection areas.This added connection area may lead to, for example, reduced verticalthermal resistance in the chip stack.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particularembodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. Asused herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended toinclude the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicatesotherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises”and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify thepresence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements,and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of onemore other features, integers, steps, operations, element components,and/or groups thereof.

The corresponding structures, materials, acts, and equivalents of allmeans or step plus function elements in the claims below are intended toinclude any structure, material, or act for performing the function incombination with other claimed elements as specifically claimed. Thedescription of the present invention has been presented for purposes ofillustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive orlimited to the invention in the form disclosed. Many modifications andvariations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the artwithout departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. Theembodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain theprinciples of the invention and the practical application, and to enableothers of ordinary skill in the art to understand the invention forvarious embodiments with various modifications as are suited to theparticular use contemplated.

The flow diagrams depicted herein are just one example. There may bemany variations to this diagram or the steps (or operations) describedtherein without departing from the spirit of the invention. Forinstance, the steps may be performed in a differing order or steps maybe added, deleted or modified. All of these variations are considered apart of the claimed invention.

While the preferred embodiments to the invention have been described, itwill be understood that those skilled in the art, both now and in thefuture, may make various improvements and enhancements which fall withinthe scope of the claims which follow. These claims should be construedto maintain the proper protection for the invention first described.

What is claimed is:
 1. A chip stack, comprising: two or more chips; asolder joint operably disposed between adjacent ones of the two or morechips, the solder joint occupying about 25-30% or more of an area of thechip stack and comprising a pad having an outer surface disposed at asingle plane outwardly from a conductor and on upper-most surfaces ofinsulators and an inner surface recessed from the single plane of theouter surface and disposed in contact with the conductor; and insulatingwalls disposed on at least one of the two or more chips to separate thesolder joint from an adjacent solder joint, the insulating wallsextending from the uppermost surfaces of the corresponding insulatorsand being displaced from each of the corresponding adjacent ones of thesolder pads.
 2. The chip stack according to claim 1, wherein the solderjoint occupies about 50% or more of the area of the chip stack.
 3. Thechip stack according to claim 1, wherein the solder joint and theadjacent solder joint have a pitch of about 100 microns or less.
 4. Thechip stack according to claim 1, wherein the insulating walls aredisposed on each of the two or more chips.
 5. A chip stack element,comprising: a substrate having two major surfaces; solder pads arrayedalong a plane of one of the major surfaces with outer surfaces thereofdisposed outwardly from a conductor and above insulators, the solderpads comprising a seed layer, a post disposed on the seed layer, solderjoint material and underbump metallurgy interposed between the solderjoint material and the post; and walls formed of electrically insulatingmaterial disposed between adjacent ones of the solder pads, wherein foreach solder pad, the walls extend from uppermost surfaces of theinsulators, are displaced from each of the adjacent ones of the solderpads, surround the seed layer, the post and the underbump metallurgy andform with the underbump metallurgy a solder joint material containingrecess.
 6. The chip stack element according to claim 5, wherein thesolder pads occupy more than about 25-30% of an area of the one majorsurface.
 7. The chip stack element according to claim 5, wherein thesolder pads occupy more than about 50% of an area of the one majorsurface.
 8. The chip stack element according to claim 5, wherein thesolder pads have a pitch of about 100 microns or less.
 9. The chip stackelement according to claim 5, wherein the walls form a hexagonal array.10. The chip stack element according to claim 5, wherein the walls arecontinuous and comprise polymer.
 11. The chip stack element according toclaim 5, wherein the walls are displaced outwardly from and above thesolder pads and, for each solder pad, the seed layer, the post and theunderbump metallurgy are wider than the solder joint material.